A Guardian's Heart, A Warrior's Soul, A Family's Love
by Wolfwind97
Summary: When Jack's town was burned to the ground by enemy soldiers, hostages were taken, including Jack, his mother, and his sister. Meanwhile, Jack's father and his hunting party find their town destroyed and people missing; they begin to track them. What do the soldiers want from them? Will the hunting party find them? Can Jack protect those around him? Will they all be killed?


**A/N: People here on fanfiction use 'Pippa' as Jack's little sister's name, due to the fact that her name is not known. Therefore, Pippa will be Jack's little sister's name in this story, simply because it is more simple.**

Jack never thought him and his sister would ever be seperated. However, fate wouldn't allow them to stay together forever. The night they were seperated was the worst night Jack had ever experienced in his entire life. Everyone around him was terrified and constantly looked over their shoulders. The townspeople were like another family to him and he couldn't stand to see fear overwhelm their senses, sending them into a chaotic scramble.

As fast as he could, Jack ran through the burning town, trying to find his family. His mother and sister were somewhere in this chaos and the teenage boy knew he had to find them and get out of the town. Thankfully, his father was gone with a few others on a hunting trip. The smoke pulled the oxygen out of Jack's lungs, causing them to burn painfully. Regardless of that, he continued to run. He continued to search for his family.

Screams of terror and pain echoed around Jack and he wanted to cover his ears, but he knew he couldn't. His family was there, he just had to find them. Jack ran to where his house was and found eight enemy soldiers there, dragging two people from the small, now burning cabin: those two people were Jack's mother and sister. One of the soldiers hit Jack's mother in the face, which made her fall to the ground. Pippa began to scream and tried to get away from her captor, tears streaming down her face.

Rage coursed through Jack as he ran toward the soldiers, "Leave them alone!" The soldiers turned, surprised that somebody was attacking them. Jack punched one in the face, sending the soldier staggering backward, holding his jaw. The other soldiers managed to get over their shock, then began to form a circle around the teenage boy. A tree limb laid on the ground beside Jack's feet and, without looking away from his opponents, he picked up the limb. Jack was glad to have a weapon in his hand, it made him feel more likely to win.

In an instant, four soldiers attacked Jack, who swung the limb through the air. His arms felt the shock as the limb slammed into one man's chest. When Jack swung the tree limb again, it was cut into by a sword. Jack froze once he saw the weapon, but then he heard Pippa crying and he was sent into a rage he had never known. He could barely see through the haze of red that had nearly consumed his vision. Jack charged at the man with the sword. When the swordman swung, Jack ducked underneath the attack and slammed the limb into the man's ribs, resulting in a sickening crack from the man's ribs.

The man grunted painfully and fell back, dropping his sword. Quickly, Jack retrieved the sword and held it firmly in his hand. The weapon didn't feel right to him, but it would have to do. Jack charged at another man, but was sidetracked as he heard the sound of a sword traveling his way. The teen raised the sword and blocked the attack that would have beheaded him, then launched an attack of his own. He ducked underneath the enemy's sword and swung the blade toward the man's stomach. However, Jack was kicked to the ground by another soldier.

As soon as he was on the ground, the soldiers saw their opportunity. They restrained him and began to hit him with both their feet and fists. Jack struggled, he grabbed a soldier's foot before it connected with his already bruised ribs and pushed forward, sending the man on his backside. As a result of that action, somebody slammed the flat side of their sword into his ribs and Jack could hear the crack of his ribs fracturing. They continued to hit him until blood seeped into the ground and covered the grass.

One of the soldiers ordered, "That's enough." Only then did the attacks cease. Jack laid on the ground, trying to catch a painful breath. The soldier grabbed Jack by his hair and lifted his head until Jack was looking at the soldier's cold, ruthless eyes. "You defy us, you defy the king. We were ordered to kill anyone who stood against us and you have made that mistake, kid. Let me guess, that's your family over there isn't it?" The man pointed to Jack's mother and Pippa. Jack didn't say anything. The soldier laughed, "You knew you weren't going to win this fight, yet you done it anyway to protect your family. How sad. You hurt some of my comrades pretty badly, I'll have to make you pay for that."

The man let go of Jack's hair and began to walk toward Jack's mother and sister with his sword in one hand. Terror coursed through the teen's veins. Jack couldn't just watch his family be slaughtered, he had to do something. The man raised the sword in the air, prepared to send the sword into his mother's flesh. "NO!" With all the energy he had left, Jack charged toward the man, somehow managing to escape the other soldier's grasps. He lunged in front of the sword just before it hit his mother. Jack felt the blade dig into his shoulder and a burning pain coursed through it. Warm blood appeared through the teen's shirt and even more appeared when the sword was pulled out of Jack's shoulder.

The swordman laughed, "You're a lot more brave than what you look, kid. You're coming with us, along with your family. I'm sure we could set them up somewhere among the organization."

Jack was confused and wondered what the organization was. Whatever it was, it didn't sound welcoming. Before he knew it, Jack was being dragged along with the soldiers and a few other people he knew from the town. They were these soldiers captives, and all the hope of escape diminished from Jack's heart. He just hoped he could find a way to survive so he could get his family away from these murderers.

The group had done nothing but walk for three days now, with small portions of food and water. Jack managed to find his mother and sister in the crowd and walked with them. However, there was no conversation as they walked along the nearly hidden path. Everybody was frightened, terrified of what they were going to encounter next. Already, families had been slughtered, what else was going to happen?

A child collapsed nearly ten feet in front of Jack and his family. People tried to get the little girl to rise to her feet, but they were blistered so bad they bled profusely. The soldiers began to question what had their group of captives stopped and laughed when they saw their answer. One soldier said, "Those who can't move will be left behind for the crows! If you try to help those who have fallen, you will fall with them." The soldier grabbed the hilt of his sword when he said that.

The little girl was old enough to understand the threat and began to cry. The little girl's mother was wrapping her child's feet in strips of cloth from her shirt. The mother's stomach was bulged out and when she turned to look around, Jack recognized her as Sarah, an expecting mother. The people around the mother was too afraid to help the little girl, but Jack knew the mother couldn't carry her daughter alone.

Jack's mother didn't try to stop him, because she knew her son was too stubborn to listen. The teen walked to the little girl and crouched with his back to her. "You can ride on my back so you don't have to walk."

Sarah looked at Jack with tear-filled eyes, "Jack, you'll be killed. I can carry her, she's my daughter."

The teen shook his head, "You're in no condition to carry her. Trust me, your daughter and I will be fine." With a smile, Jack looked back at the child. "Well? The boat is going to leave if you don't board it quickly."

The child laughed a little and wrapped her arms around his neck. Jack made sure she was secure before rising to his feet. Instantly, the wound in his shoulder protested, but he ignored it, for Jack knew he would probably be the only one to ignore the soldiers' threats.

One of the soldiers laughed, "You won't make it with an extra burden."

"I guess we'll find out then." Jack replied, glad to have the chance to retaliate, even though it was only verbally.

The soldier scowled, "Watch it kid. The Boss may like your spirit, but that can be broken quickly. In fact, it will be broken quickly."

The feeling of dread filled Jack's heart as he wondered what that meant. Where were they going? How much further was it? What was waiting on them? Jack couldn't answer any of these questions, he just hoped that they would all survive. In the meantime, though, he continued to walk along with the others, not slowing down, trying to show that he did not have a burden clinging to his shoulders. Briefly, he felt his shoulder wound reopen and wondered how much longer he was going to last.

Later that night, a hunting party entered their burning town. Each man ran among the town, searching for any survivors, but only found the charred remains of those they used to know. When the hunting party reformed, they realized they was missing one person. Immediately, they understood and began to walk toward the one place where they knew they would find their friend.

Sure enough, Samuel Overland was standing in front of the ashes of his cabin. He began to call for his family and only received silence, just like the rest of the hunting party had encountered as they searched for their own family. John, Samuel's best friend, walked to him and laid a hand on Samuel's shoulder, only to see Samuel staring at something. John looked down and saw the reddish brown liquid dried on the ground.

"There's a possibility it's not from your wife or kids, Sam. It could be from whoever attacked this place." John said to try to comfort his friend.

Samuel sighed, "Maybe, but I doubt it. Somebody fought here, there's too much blood spattered around." John remained silent, unsure of what to say. Samuel looked at the rest of the hunting party, "What about your families?"

"Gone." A man, Terry, replied. "We searched everywhere, even helped each other. The only thing we found were footprints leaving the town in a large group."

John questioned, "Do you believe some were taken hostage?"

"That's the only reasonable answer I have as to why we can't find them. So, what do we do now?" Terry asked.

Samuel rose to his feet, "We go find our families and friends. While we do that, we bring Hell to those bastards that done this." With that said, the hunting group began walking out of the town with weapons gripped tightly in their hands, following the jumbled footprints out into unknown territory.


End file.
